Normal to Height

[riccardof86429677]

Hi everyone, 

I'm trying to convert a normal map to a height map with geometric accuracy. Sampler does the job pretty well (with some minor approximation), however it limits the size to 4096 x 4096 and it stretches it into a square format. Is there a way in sampler to have the native resolution and ratio? Or is there any other adobe app that does a normal to height conversion with the same level of accuracy of sampler but preserving size and ratio?

Thanks Riccardo

PS:  does anyone know which is the exact formula sampler achieve to give this result? 

[Ares Hovhannesyan]

Did you use Normal to Height | Substance 3D Sampler (adobe.com) filter? Thanks

[riccardof86429677]

Yes, and it is the best I've used so far, it preserves perfectly the real geometry and it is super robust and fast, however sampler always stretches the textures to square ratios, and it only allows to export up to 4k res is it right?

If adobe do not provide any solution to transform normal into height (I also consider other adobe apps if they have what I'm looking for) I might consider to rebuild the algorithm via script, but I'm not a programmer or a matematician so I would need reference bibliography for that, I've already found plenty of alternative approaces, but the sampler's one is the best one I've found in terms of geometric accuracy and speed, do you know if adobe ever published a paper explaining their approach?

[Lory3D]

Hi,
You should be able to export non square maps, by click on the lock icon (in viewport and export window).
But the resolution must to be a factor of two. 

The biggest resolution we can export from 3D Sampler today is 4k.

Regards.

[riccardof86429677]

Yea I've seen the lock icon but I needed to preserve the original size and resolution.

What are the chances to have this feature in future updates?

[Lory3D]

This isn't related to the original size but the working/export size. 
It is here only to keep resolution ratio between x and y. 

Or maybe I didn't quite understand your issue?
It be best if you can share screens to help us understand.

[riccardof86429677]

It is a hard thing to show with a screenshot, I try to explain it better, I already have a normal map with a given resolution (lets say 8000x 1216), I need to generate the height map and export the height map with the same resolution of the original normal map that generated it. At the moment it is not possible in substance I guess. I mean I can generate the height map perfectly but at the moment of export I can not preserve the original ratio and resolution because it forces you to rescale the export to a 2x1 or 1x1 ratio with maximum res of 4096 per side

[Lory3D]

Yes, this kind of custom + high resolution export are not available in 3D Sampler.
As I mentioned earlier the resolution must to be a factor of two and the biggest resolution we can export today is 4k.

[riccardof86429677]

Yea, thanks  for the clarification, that was my worry, pity that sampler does not support native resolution of the textures, this is quite limiting honestly.
I add another thing: I've noticed that the calculation of the height from normal is accurate only for normal maps that have flat parameters, if the normal has not flat perimeters the height map extracted from that is geometrically very inaccurate, since it flattens the perimeter, is there any option to avoid perimeter flattening?

[Lory3D]

You're welcome!

Can you share some files with me? The ones you encounter the issue with, or some screenshot of the issue (it really helps us to understand and help)?
So I can see if its a bug or if there's a workaround for you to use.

[riccardof86429677]

Sure: here are the normal map and two screenshots explaining the problem:

 normal map tested

 

expected shape calculated with a more robust error minimization algorithm

the shape produced by substance using the normal-to-height filter, locally gives a rather correct result, but the perimeters are completely flattened thus globally the more you get closer to the perimeter the more error you get

[Lory3D · Accepted solution]

Hi,

Can you try to enable the "preserve tiling" in the filter properties? 
It works on my end, and enabled or not it doesn't seem to influence the map quality at export. 

Thank you!

[riccardof86429677]

thanks! I completly missed that one!